Steven Gibbs

For three years, Steven Gibbs was under investigation as a dirty cop, accused of siphoning cash from a drug dealer, as other Los Angeles County narcotics deputies had admitted doing. But when the U.S. attorney's office declined to prosecute his case, Gibbs was not home free. The day before the statute of limitations expired, the county district attorney's office charged him with stealing about $60,000 from a drug dealer and lying on a search warrant.

For three years, Steven Gibbs was under investigation as a dirty cop, accused of siphoning cash from a drug dealer, as other Los Angeles County narcotics deputies had admitted doing. But when the U.S. attorney's office declined to prosecute his case, Gibbs was not home free. The day before the statute of limitations expired, the county district attorney's office charged him with stealing about $60,000 from a drug dealer and lying on a search warrant.

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office Friday filed grand theft charges against two former sheriff's deputies accused of stealing more than $10,000 in cash and jewelry during a 1989 narcotics raid. Steven B. Gibbs, 43, and Roger R. Garcia, 46, were charged with taking the money and valuables while searching a storage locker in Inglewood. Gibbs is also charged with lying in an affidavit used to obtain the search warrant.

Two ex-sheriff's deputies were found not guilty Tuesday of charges that they stole a trash bag full of cash during a 1989 search at an Inglewood storage facility. After deliberating for 45 minutes, a Los Angeles Superior Court jury acquitted Steven B. Gibbs, 44, and Roger R. Garcia, 47, on single counts each of grand theft. The men were charged with stealing $62,000 in cash during a 1989 search of a storage locker in Inglewood, the day after the defendants got a warrant to open it.

Peering through the peephole of his room at the Valley Hilton Hotel, Sheriff's Sgt. Robert Sobel surveyed the empty corridor. The drug dealer who had occupied the penthouse suite across the hallway was nowhere in sight. Sobel nodded to his narcotics deputies, Dan Garner and Jim Bauder. The officers slipped outside, spotted a hotel maid and flashed their badges. She opened the penthouse door. A few minutes later, the deputies returned to Sobel's room with a gym bag.